Matthew 6:24

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Probably one of the most misused verses to date in my life. Yes, I know there are many, many misused verses, but this is one that I (personally) keep hearing again and again, but only in part.  “No man can serve two masters.” Being used most of the time to insinuate people are serving another god if they don’t do what someone thinks they should do. Scripture taken out of context is a dangerous game. If you read the entire chapter of Matthew 6, there’s a lot packed in there for the believer struggling with life and living by faith. I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth, I’ve had to work my entire adult life, so when leaving that station in life (or rather having it leave me) faith was amped up to a new level. And I’d be a liar if I told you it’s been easy. It’s an every other day thing. About every other day I have faith. The other day is a doubt day, filled that way by myself and Satan who always has plenty to contribute. So when I read in Matthew 6

²⁵ Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

You are what you eat and fashion makes the man the world says, and guilt is laid on pretty thick. And so I keep reading 26-32

Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

And then I am reminded, God know my needs and He knows my desires, but better than all that He knows my limitations. So He gives me some instruction that was Manna for the day for me.

Verses 33-34

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

God is limitless. America defines success by the dollar. And that’s where verse 24 comes into context. The other god is money. Hey, I like money! I’ve prayed for money. I need it to pay my bills and when I don’t have it, I get scared. But I cannot allow money to define who I am and how I serve; then I’m serving it and “it” is a god. It’s ruling my decisions and those decisions may put me out of the will of God and that’s scarier than being broke.

But if I seek the Kingdom of God, desiring first to find Him, all of a sudden life’s purpose becomes very clear.

The wise Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 7:11-13

Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun. For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it. Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?

Knowledge and money may protect you from the elements of life that can be seen, but around the bend for which we cannot see, and must travel by faith, lies limitless blessings, that shouldn’t ever be traded for the things of today.

God’s got this…